Not a play maker

Question
Hello Mr. Kenward. I'm sure this is probably a common question for you. When i'm in practice i am flying around hitting people, making plays, scoring touchdowns, attacking offensive player but when it comes to game time i freeze up. I cant catch, i cant hit, i slow down, i have even stood there and watch the running back walk into the endzone when playing outside backer on my side. I always start the season as a starter but after a few games of poor play i lose my job and eventually my confidence and inspiration goes down and i stop caring about practice all together. I am currently in the Navy and am going to be going to a div II college next year to play ball. How can i work on this by next football season so i can be the same play maker i am during the game as in practice?

Answer
Hello John

What I'd like you to do is this - sit down with a pencil and paper and write down when this started and what was going on in the game and in your life.  Has what you are experiencing - doing well in practice but not under pressure - happened in other areas of your life (is it a common theme)?  If so, when did it start?

I've helped hundreds of people overcome the problem of doing well in practice but not under pressure. It's ALWAYS a learned response.  This is because I know that if you weren't born with it, you learned it.

Back as a Navy corpsman working in a Naval Hospital emergency room, I learned that people have the native ability to tap into amazing resources inside of them.  Your ability is temporarily blocked up - but it can ALWAYS be unblocked.

Here's a mental training tool that can help you.  Get relaxed, close your eyes, and take five slow deep breaths.  Then, picture or imagine a time when you played successfully in practice, when you felt really confident.  Really focus in on that, everything you saw, heard, felt and experienced.  Notice how confident you are.   Now change to another practice when you did great and felt confident.  Notice again how you felt.  And do it again, the same thing.  

Now, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, say to yourself, PLAYMAKER, while imagining that time when you played well and felt confident.  Do that five times, then take a deep breath, open your eyes and stretch it out.  What you've done is started to train your mind to associate a word - PLAYMAKER - with your experience of feeling confident and playing great.  The more you practice this tool, the stronger that association gets.  After you've practiced it ten times, you are ready to start practicing it on the practice field.  

When you've trained your mind to the point when you say PLAYMAKER you feel that confidence and power, then you are ready to do it in a game. You start doing this before the game even starts, to get yourself into the success zone (which you've trained yourself to do).  Then, in a game, take in a breath, exhale and say to yourself PLAYMAKER and you'll discover you'll feel that confidence and power to do your best.  I've helped many football players improve using this skill and this can work for you too.  Remember, the more you practice, the better you get.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

David

David Kenward - The Mental Coach
Sacramento, California
http://www.thementalcoach.com
Win the Mental Game: Overcome mental blocks and improve performance
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